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Post by fagenism on Jun 17, 2013 12:40:42 GMT
I think this forum is a nice initiative. Until a sharp increase in activity, I would recommend reducing the number of subforums -- maybe that's just me. Nice job, regardless.
What are everyone's favorite non-Dan albums? Thought this might be a relevant topic, with no new Don/Walt offerings on the immediate horizon.
Here's my list:
1. Tell Your Friends (Snarky Puppy): Sensational composers, sensational instrumentalists. All I have to say about these guys, really.
2. Painted From Memory (Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello): Heartbreaking arrangements and vocals. This is a perfect album.
3. Letter From Home (Pat Metheny Group): Metheny + Mays + Aznar = beauty.
4. Dreamland (The Yellowjackets): Jazz quartet with a heavy focus on memorable hooks. I consider frontman/pianist Russell Ferrante the Richard Feynman of music.
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Post by Shark DeVille on Jun 18, 2013 5:24:36 GMT
thanks fagenism
this is a tough one. I'm bad at lists, but here goes... in no particular order:
1) Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (one of the greatest albums ever made as most people know by now, but I'm also a huge fan of their lesser-known albums from the late 60s... Wild Honey and Friends in particular.)
2) Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music (hard to pick just one Monk record, but it's hard to go wrong with the all-star cast he assembled for this one, including John Coltrane.)
3) Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina - Elis & Tom (a perfect album of Jobim material sung by the amazing Ms. Regina, with a few duets and one Tom solo.)
4) Willie Nelson - Phases & Stages (one of the few concept albums in country music. Detailing a couple's breakup, Side 1 is sung from the female's point of view and Side 2 the male's. The songs are strung together by the title track, which appears throughout the album.)
5) Stevie Wonder - Talking Book (hard to pick just one Stevie album too. There's also Fulfillingness' First Finale, Innervisions, and of course Songs In The Key Of Life.)
6) The Kinks - Arthur (good lord, another tough choice. These guys put out a string of perfect albums every year starting with Something Else in '67, then Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, Lola vs. Powerman, and Muswell Hillbillies in '71.)
7) Ween - White Pepper (really cool to see this Jersey duo's songwriting and album production mature over the years. Chocolate & Cheese, The Mollusk, White Pepper, and Quebec were all great leaps forward.)
8) Gillian Welch - Revival (she never topped her first release in my opinion, due in large part to T-Bone Burnett's production and some A-list session players.)
9) The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin (this is where country-rock really gets off the ground in my opinion. Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman were on fire as a songwriting team and the whole image and attitude they conveyed has never been matched.)
10) Dillard & Clark - The Fantastic Expedition of (Gene Clark put out a handful of indispensable albums, but this partnership with Doug Dillard on banjo and Bernie Leadon helping out on guitar and some of the songwriting was a real high-water mark. Amazing stuff.)
I could easily rattle off another 20 or so, but this is good for now.
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Abu
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Post by Abu on Jun 19, 2013 13:25:05 GMT
I generally like lists, myself. However, this particular thread is difficult for me. What I mean is, there are only three essential non-Dan albums (so far) that I would list. Oh yeah, there are a number of albums with a couple, or even three or four excellent tunes. But only three ALBUMS really stand out in my book. Especially through the 80s, 90s, and up to the present, I have been increasingly out of touch with much of the stuff coming out. Also, by the mid-90s, I started to switch my main musical interest to classical. I grew up in a house with both parents always listening to this, so I began to "re-discover" it about 20 years ago. Of course, I am still very fond of the Dan, including some of the better covers (especially instrumental) of their material. Also, many of my favorites from the late 60s and through the 70s still get played. Thus, my list only contains three albums from this time frame:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles (a recognized classic)
Abbey Road - The Beatles (their last recorded album, mostly all made after they realized they were going to break up. Thus, a more "relaxed" effort, with less tension)
Silk Degrees - Boz Scaggs (excellent musicians, songwriting, production, and performance. A very diversified effort that put Boz on the map. Smooth as Silk!)
Abu
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Post by steelyfax on Jun 19, 2013 18:45:47 GMT
I have a very diverse musical taste but I would like to recommend one band that I love which you probably won't have heard of. They are a band from Northern Sweden called Moon Safari. They are usually classified as progressive but please don't be put off even if the term horrifies you! They are an eclectic group with diverse influences. Take a listen to this short acapella track, which highlights one of their major strengths. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8shEBFGG4s8 |
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Abu
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Post by Abu on Jun 21, 2013 2:01:29 GMT
I have a very diverse musical taste but I would like to recommend one band that I love which you probably won't have heard of. They are a band from Northern Sweden called Moon Safari. They are usually classified as progressive but please don't be put off even if the term horrifies you! They are an eclectic group with diverse influences. Take a listen to this short acapella track, which highlights one of their major strengths. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8shEBFGG4s8I just listened to their Lover's End album. These guys have some very nice harmonies, to be sure, even as the above acapella track illustrates. I can't help compare them to some 70s bands that I listened to a lot back then. They have similarities to Styx, REO Speedwagon, Yes, and perhaps even Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Ambrosia. Their use of a synthesizer harkens back to those days when it was featured prominently in much of the music back then. I hear REO in the harmonies at times, but with more sophistication, it seems. You have good taste, as their music sounds pretty good, especially compared to much of the techno-pop glop that all sounds the same to my ears. |
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Post by steelyfax on Jun 21, 2013 17:06:23 GMT
I have a very diverse musical taste but I would like to recommend one band that I love which you probably won't have heard of. They are a band from Northern Sweden called Moon Safari. They are usually classified as progressive but please don't be put off even if the term horrifies you! They are an eclectic group with diverse influences. Take a listen to this short acapella track, which highlights one of their major strengths. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8shEBFGG4s8I just listened to their Lover's End album. These guys have some very nice harmonies, to be sure, even as the above acapella track illustrates. I can't help compare them to some 70s bands that I listened to a lot back then. They have similarities to Styx, REO Speedwagon, Yes, and perhaps even Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Ambrosia. Their use of a synthesizer harkens back to those days when it was featured prominently in much of the music back then. I hear REO in the harmonies at times, but with more sophistication, it seems. You have good taste, as their music sounds pretty good, especially compared to much of the techno-pop glop that all sounds the same to my ears. Thanks for the kind comments, Abu. They are a great band and lovely people. Lovers End is their most poppy work (for want of a better word). They have a new album out in August but in the meantime I would listen to Lovers End Part III, which is just exquisite. |
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Post by Jazzassin on Jul 19, 2013 13:41:00 GMT
Ok, this is a list of ten non-Dan favorite albums of mine. It could as well have become a list of hundred albums at least, maybe even a thousand. But you have to start somewhere, and 10 seems like a proper number for a list like this.
I guess I will edit this post and add a little comment to each album on the list one of these days, but for now I'll just post the list itself. It's in random order. Here we go:
Frank Zappa: Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)
Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life (1976)
Jean-Luc Ponty: King Kong - Jean-Luc Ponty plays the music of Frank Zappa. (1970)
Count Basie: The Atomic Mr. Basie (or just "Basie", also called "E=mc²") (1958)
Pat Metheny Group: The Road To You (2006)
King Crimson: Red (1974)
Blood, Sweat & Tears: Blood, Sweat & Tears (1968)
Gary Burton: Ástor Piazzolla Reunion - A Tango Excursion (1996)
Snarky Puppy: Tell Your Friends (2010)
Another interesting list would be one of Dan fans' non-Dan favorite singles or standalone songs. There's many a great song that was originally on albums that are too uneven to find their way to a favorite albums list.
Maybe I'll start that thread later on if no one else does it.
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